Concertgebouw Orchestra & Seong-Jin Cho: Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1

Seong-Jin Cho is the ideal soloist for Tchaikovsky’s always compelling Piano Concerto No. 1. Joana Mallwitz also leads the Concertgebouw Orchestra in delightful music from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and Hindemith’s fascinating Symphony 'Mathis der Maler'. Seong-Jin Cho & Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 Conductor Joana Mallwitz and pianist Seong-Jin Cho forma dream team when it comes to Tchaikovsky’s intensely romantic Piano Concerto No. 1, a quintessentially Slavic work, with grand gestures and melodies running through it like deep furrows. It contains quotations from Ukrainian folk music and, oddly enough, a snippet of a French cabaret song. It is overwhelming, compelling and highly virtuosic. Strauss's Rosenkavalier Hindemith’s downright fascinating Symphony 'Mathis der Maler' from 1934, a preliminary study for an opera about a painter who refuses to let those in power restrict his artistic freedom. It was naturally a subject of great relevance during the rise of Nazism, and continues to be today. Hindemith’s sound world is beyond comparison: it is characterised by a neoclassical style with sharp edges. His melodies also hint at Hindemith’s background as a cafe and street musician. We might well describe Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier as neoclassical in style, too, as it is a homage to old Vienna. And that means waltzes and other dance music, all sparklingly orchestrated.